Gadgetory

the internet is full of threats and I'm not talking about the ones that appear in forums from trolls like they'll fill your bed with eels I'm talking about things like malware cross-site scripting attacks clickjacking a lot of these attacks work by injecting scripts into webpages that you don't even know are there and you can give yourself a modicum more protection by running a Firefox plug-in called no script no script blocks all scripts from running until you authorize them here's how to get it go to addons.mozilla.org and search for no script install it like you would any add-on once you have it installed look in the bottom right corner at the little s with the cross out symbol clicking on it brings up a submenu that allows you to choose how to handle scripts on the page you're looking at the safest way is not to allow any scripts you'll never fall victim to code that doesn't run but some sites won't work without script so the next safest thing is to temporarily allow only the scripts you need and/or trust a lazier and slightly less safe method is to temporarily allow all the scripts on a page the next more convenient level but also next less safe is to permanently allow scripts either individually or all for a page this becomes necessary if you want to take advantage of things like maybe your bank's website or Google Docs where you don't want to constantly allow scripts every time you launch your browser although it does make those less safe if you permanently allow scripts from a site you're putting your trust in that site that it will never allow itself to be infected by a malicious script the very worst thing you can do is this one globally allow all scripts you might as well just not run no script at all at that point if you've allowed a script on a page and you change your mind about it you can always choose to forbid to start blocking it again running no script means you're going to have to do a bit more thinking about the pages you surf to it was enlightening when I first started running no script which of my banks and utilities worked just fine without scripts and which became disabled if nothing else no script gives you more control over what risks you expose yourself to on the net for that reason alone I run it I'm Tom Merritt CNET comm